Arizona weekly enterprise., 1887-11-26
FOREST PRESERVATION.
Serious Results Following the Destruc- tion from "Clearing Up'' and Fire.

Serious Results Following the Destruc-
 tion from "Clcaring Up" and Fire.
 The series of articles by Professor Sha- Ter in Scribner's has ably presented the topic of tree preservation-a topic the 1 American people must positively give | heed to. No nation under the sun was | in times of peace ever so wasteful as our | own. The increasing ease of securing a l supply of food has tended for some hun dreds of years, if not thousands, to rem | der human beings less economical of means and careful of methods. The older races, like the Chinese, never waste; to them everything has its use. But we have destroyed as much as we have pro- duced. Forests that nature raised by the labor of thousand years we have burned up in day. Civilization has invented
 the phrase clearing up, which means
 wanton removal of all things that stand in the way of our immediate needs. | Where vast stretches of oaks covered
 millions of acres it is difficult to find a
 single grove or single tree; but how in-
 estimable such remains are when found!
 1t is not wholly from the utilitarian
 standpoint that we look, but the aesthetic. l These are like their surroundings. If it | be undesirable to dwell in the forest, it is
 still more undesirable to dwell without
 the companionship of trees. But as a
 matter of economy and physical neces-
 sity we are compelled to have sympathy
 for and with the vegetable world. Our
 destiny, in common with the whole ami
 nal kingdom, is identified with the plant
 kingdom. In the struggle for existence,
 from the outset, there has been mutual | ir,%o of oil
 we destroy the trees we injure our own
 progress and prospects. In the present
 economy of nature protoplasm, or the
 bais of life, can only be created by the
 plant kingdom; from it we receive the
 same at second hand. But our existence
 is dependent on trees and plants in many
 other ways, and always has been. The
 earliest human races were littoral, or
 shore dwellers. They had no tools to
 work their way through forests, nor
 weapons to cope with the denizens of the
 forest But with increase of the art of
 making tools human beings left the shore
 and roamed the forests as hunters. To
 the hunting races the destruction of trees
 was the destruction of their means of ex-
 istence. The North American Indian
 saw only starvation in the white mans
 unsparing ax.
 Civilization has brought us into even
 closer relation to trees, and more lntl-
 mate dependence on vegetation. The
 equilibrium of the air, adjusting the pro-
 portions of carbon gases for our healthy
 existence, depends on trees. Malaria is
 not caused, but prevented, by judicious
 proportion of forest land. Professor Sha- Ter takes up the case with great energy
 to show that the most serious result fol- . lowing the destruction of our forests will ' be the consequent loss of soil, turning
 vast areas into deserts. "Already large part of many fertile regions has been sterilized in this fashion; and each year a larger portion of cur infinitely precious heritage of soil slips into rivers and finds it's way to the sea, because we have de s prived it of the protecting coating of . vegetation We have also to consider . the immense vegetation deposit which is I yearly added to the soil where forests |. abound. Our own culture takes from : the soil, on the contrary, more than i V gives. So the waste from rain is greater 2 in titled soils than in wooded lands. II
 forests the soil is ever deepening; in oper ' lands ever decreasing. This evil we mus ' endure, but should be careful not to az l. gravate. The amount of soil now swep s away annually is actually clogging th' - large rivers, compelling them constantl. ;o to change channels. The argument 0 n Professor Shaler is pressed to show tha = no man has such right in soil that h = may be wasteful of it, or use it for tn . disadvantage of his neighbors. Govern lo ment, he holds, should interfere to pre- vent waste of forests.
 The question of forest preservation ha a ,o ,een more or less considered by severs f # the states, but, in fact, apart from th o' encouragement of tree planting, little ha , cen done in systematic manner I'd -egulate the use or prevent the waste (
 srees. Our relation to the vegetabl
 kingdom grows even more intricate, an
 our serious dependence more emphasize ,y constantly, since the demands of ciVilizi ad jon for timber and fuel increase, an A. nust increase.
 nd At present the greatest loss in the wa in of forest destruction is from fires cause he by locomotives, malice or carelessnes w Some of the railroads have already take or action to prevent the recurrence of u al. evil from locomotive sparks. The pla or adopted is to clear away all timb m growth for 100 feet on each side of u ,th track. A furrow is then run along tl in outer edge of this space, and the who ess kept moved and clean. The loss fro 1t. timber fires is not less than an average ss, S2,0OO,000 per state annually. This nd wholly preventable.
 al. The work of Professor Shaler is notai at in this respect, that it makes the subje' ,ci- which has been rather held to be local, md be a continental matter. He has C ous larged the subject, and shown that in vitally touches the very possibility out human existence. Globe Democrat. of |